Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Extremism in New Jersey

We've been uncovering a remarkable level of anger toward Barack Obama in a lot of our recent polling so for New Jersey we decided to go a step further in determining how extreme some people's feelings are about the President and asked respondents if they think he is the Anti-Christ.

Pretty eye popping numbers. The extent to which some people already hate Obama is amazing. We'll test that question nationally this weekend.

The extremism in New Jersey isn't limited to the right though. 19% of voters in the state, including 32% of Democrats, think that George W. Bush had prior knowledge of 9/11.

Beyond that 21% of respondents, including 33% of Republicans, express the belief that Obama was not born in the United States.

Combine the birthers and the truthers and you've got 37% of the electorate. And the 3% of voters who really need to get their heads checked are the ones who are both birthers and truthers.

These findings are in no way unique to New Jersey. In fact it's the least 'birther' of five states where we've looked at that question. But it's a reminder that high levels of extremism are in no way limited to the south.

CNN is looking more and more like an outlier now that WashPo/ABC News, USA Today/Gallup, Gallup daily tracking, you in New Jersey, and Rasmussen have released their results. So even in a poll with what appears to be a very favorable sample for Obama in the aftermath of his speech, 41% still believed in death panels (this same pollster somehow found Obama at 53% approval despite a 43/53 rating from indies in its last poll prior to the speech)

"Let me read you a number of criticisms that town hall protesters have made about the proposed health care plan. For each one, please tell me whether this seems to you to be likely to happen or unlikely to happen:

Will allow the government to make decisions about when to stop providing medical care to the elderly"

45% said that was likely to happen. This question is probably more representative of the actual death panel claim that the CNN question.

Even if the "truther" stuff shows some extremism, it's pretty questionable to compare that idea to apocolyptic cries of "ANTICHRIST!"

Also, consider that Bush did receive a memo in advance that said "Bin Laden to Strike United States". So, it's very plausible that the "truther" question might be poorly phrased (thus resulting in an artificially high answer).

I personally disagree with the question. I think Obama is 'an' Antichrist, not 'the' Antichrist. If he wants to be 'the' Antichrist he's got a lot of competition. (Maybe that will be his next elected office.

As for the location of his birth, I know for a fact that Obama was born in Weaselvania, because he is a weasel. If he was an American, he would already have chucked out $12 and released his long-form birth certificate to all and sundry. But he did not, because he is not an American, he is a weasel. Therefore, he was obviously born in Weaselvania.

This is a completely retarded poll, since no human being would seriously posit that Obama is the anti-Christ and simply respond in a flippant manner.

Here's a way to test the idiiocy of your premise: Conduct the same poll and ask respondents if they think Obama is Godzilla. You will get the same numbers.

Then you can fume about how serious the situation is, why, 13% of Republicans ACTUALLY BELIEVE that Obama is Godzilla.

Nice try at deflecting the Acorn story, though. Oh, and btw, please thank Jimmy Carter for calling the 54% of the population concerned with Obama's plan to takeover healthcare 'racists'. Ya just can't buy that kind of electoral help.

Of course they think he is the anti-christ. There is even a you tube video explaining that the bible establishes that the name Obama was given as the anti-christ. In terms of the truther issue, the question is not worded as clearly. In fact, the reason for creation of the Homeland Security Dept was the evidence that the U.S. failed to connect know dots that could have prevented 911. A month before 9/11, bush was given the following memo: "The memo, titled "Bin Laden determined to attack inside the U.S.," had been described by the White House as a largely historical document with scant information about domestic al Qaeda threats." Here is a link discussing it. http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/04/10/bush.briefing/

Did anyone notice that 5% of Obama supporters said he YES, he is the Anti-Christ, and another 5% said they weren't sure? One in ten Obama supporters think that he might be the Anti-Christ? Really?

I'm thinking that the +/-4.5% margin of errr estimate may be just a little low. Others have suggested that people were giving flippant answers. I think the 5/5/90% among Obama supporters bears this out.

The relevant table is:

http://www.eldacur.com/~brons/VoxLibertas/Obama-Anti-Christ.gif as seen on page 6 of the PDF.

You would get significant results with a properly designed survey. This is not a properly designed survey. Tom Jensen has nothing to gain by studying stastics and polling, since he already is popular and successful. However much it makes Tom Jensen even more popular and successful, this will never amount to anything, and I'm guessing that based on this piece, nothing Tom Jensen will ever do will be remembered past tomorrow morning's coffee.

As an earlier anonymous poster suggested, the truther question is partly a question of language. What exactly does prior knowledge mean? Bush did have knowledge that Bin Laden was planning this type of attack thanks to intelligence memos. Some respondents may consider this prior knowledge. Now if you asked "Do you believe that the twin towers were intentionally brought down by something other than the airplanes flown into them..." the results might be different.

I have to admit that I'm terrified!I always thought that this kind of crass stupidity was limited to an uneducated / isolated / super religious / mentally challenged fringe.But since Obama's election, my world has been turned upside down. It looks like it's the rational human beings who are the fringe.I'll never think of "democracy" in the same way again...

To the anonymous poster who said, "I have to admit that I'm terrified!"...

That's exactly what the folk who throw around these mad notions and act as fear mongers want, both to scare the gullible, latently racist and insecure that Obama is an alien, a Nazi, a Socialist, a terrorist, and that their country has been stolen and to scare you and others that a lunatic fringe are poised to take over the world.

It creates fear all around and as they say, "fear is the mind-killer". It makes us stupid and irrational. It makes us act against our own best interests. If we fight and name call and run around in panic we won't sit down and work out rational, practical schemes to solve these problems, problems that they profit from.

Breathe. Take control. Be rational. Investigate on your own. Talk with both those you agree with and those whom you don't. We can find solutions if we act like grownups.

Things aren't as bad as they look. The poll says that only 90% of Obama supporters are convinced that he's not the Anti-Christ. That is an unreasonably high number. The error margin has to be higher than the 4-5% that they cite.

I hate to bring this up- if Obama is the anti-Christ, then we are screwed. You can't vote the anti-Christ out of office. Whether you believe in pre, mid or post tribulation rapture, the longest you'll have is seven years to armegeddon.